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Wednesday, 3 January 2018

Arsenal starlet and Nigerian footballer, Chuba Amechi Akpom has been banned from driving after crashing his £60,000 Range Rover while he was drunk on a concoction of 'vodka and cranberry juice'.

Daily Mail Sport reported that at around 4.50am on the morning of December 17, the 22-year-old smashed a fence and furniture after losing control of his car and mounting a grass verge near his home in Barnet, North London.

Police followed the trail of destruction and gave Akpom a breath test. After it showed he was above the legal limit, Akpom was taken to police station and later charged with drink driving.

The Sun also reported that no one told the player's father - who, after discovering the wreckage the following morning, feared his son had been kidnapped.

The 22-year-old later soften those concerns by returning home safe in a taxi

At the Willesden Magistrates Court on Monday he was fined £9,350, with £85 costs and disqualified from driving for 17 months after admitting driving the Range Rover with more than double the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

Akpom's lawyer Aki Achillea told the court, that his father woke up later and found the crashed car outside the gate with no driver and for a moment he was seriously concerned about what had happened to his son.'

'He was about to ring hospitals and the police, fearing his son, being a high-profile footballer, had been abducted so this has affected the family as well.

'He has let himself down and made a dreadful mistake for a boy that has always been so disciplined.'

The 22-year-old committed the offence during a night out partying with friends in London. After the group moved from the West End to a 21st Birthday bash at a club in Watford, the striker 'stupidly agreed' to put vodka in two glasses of cranberry juice.

'His driving was erratic and he was observed by an off-duty police officer. He was parallel to a Shell petrol station and lost control, mounting the grass verge,' prosecutor Zahid Hussain told the court.

'He crashed into roadside furniture then drove back towards the road and into a heavy-duty fencing, knocking it down and out of the ground.

'He caused extensive damage to his Range Rover and left considerable debris strewn around the road.'

Akpom who was born in Canning Town in England joined Arsenal at the age of six. He made his debut for the Arsenal U18 side at the age of 15, and signed his first professional contract with Arsenal on 10 October 2012

In December 2012, Akpom received his first call into the Arsenal senior squad.

The English professional footballer of Nigerian descent also enjoyed loan spells at Brentford, Coventry City, Nottingham Forest,Hull City and Brighton & Hove Albion.